iPhone Developer Presents Their Vision of Apple’s Tablet

In anticipation of the January 27th Apple event which everyone assumes will bring the fabled tablet to reality at long last, one iPhone developer has created a couple of awesome mockups showing off what it might be capable of.

ChilliX made a name for itself on the App Store with well-made, attractive apps such as PhotoFrame, DeskClock and PlaySafe. Following the common thinking that an Apple tablet will use some variation of a souped-up iPhone OS, they’ve used some of their graphics skills to create the two mockups presented here, by essentially taking their iPhone apps and reworking them for a tablet size.

The biggest challenge in jumping from the iPhone to a tablet screen is simply one of extra pixels. Although it would be nice to dream about a tablet running a full version of Snow Leopard 10.6, the ChilliX developers figure that a new iPhone OS 4.0 will be presented at the Jan. 27 event.

“It won’t be running Snow Leopard,” the developers write in their blog. “There’s no point putting the same operating system that people use to do high end rendering and print ready artwork on a small, less powerful device.

“It won’t run the current iPhone operating system either, although it will run most existing iPhone apps in smaller windows (almost like OS X dashboard widgets),” they add. “[Our] guess is that they’ll use the event to announce iPhone OS 4.0 with lots of cool new features including support for larger screen sizes. It makes perfect sense -- everyone loves the iPhone OS.”

Given that the tablet is intended to bridge the gap between the smaller screen of a cell phone and the larger screen of a full computer, their logic makes sense. We’ll all know soon enough what Jobs. & Co. has in mind, but in the meantime we can indulge in the ChilliX vision of things to come...

Comments

I was relooking over this article and just happened to actually look at the pictures in it this time, anyone notice the hands holding the device in the second picture? Just who's hands are those, a babies?!? This device is ONLY going to be 11" tops, (considering a 10" monitor,) How do they figure it will require two hands to hold it?!? What proof, take both your hands and grab the bottom of your foot, (okay people with small feet, take hold of someone who has size 10 feet or larger or a ruler will do,) that's about the size of the device. Do you really think you'll need two hands to hold it? If so, what good will it do you, if you can't write with one hand and hold it with the other hand at the same time? Also, looking at the possiblities of the ATOM processor, and the fact that it's said that Apple is hogging them, the fact that MacBook Air's aren't THAT popular, this must be what Apple's using them for, in anticipation this thing will dominate, they purchased tons of the processors just for this. It's highly possible they do away with the Air and replace it with this, in two screen sizes, 10" and 13". Thus coming up with a price range of between $800-$1k U.S., and of course going up from there. (Anyone else thinking $3K for one with 256GB SSD?) Can still run iPhone apps, even on an AppleTV you'll be able to run the iPhone Apps, so why not on this or even a Mini or iMac? Must be a reason that Apple has told Developers to start building Apps that can be viewed on a larger screen... Anyone thinking the same as me here... Dashboard as an outlet for iTunes Apps?!?

The device will have to operate either a full or cut down version of Leopard or Snow Leopard. If it's going to be as big as Apple want, it has to get into the business market and the semi-professional user. As an oversized iPhone it will not cut the mustard. It has to compete head-on with the other tablets being announced. Apple could even be introducing a new market for apps on the O/S. This would create an enormous market as iPhone apps developers re-engineer their apps for Snow Leopard benefitting apps developers with new markets and aiding laptop and iSlate users - particularly if there was a way to cross-sync the two. (After all, if you're paying $950 for the iSlate, you're not going to worry about another $30 in apps licensing costs unless you're Scrooge)
Space Trucker's right its got to install and run a version of the developer tools to be a serious contender, even if it's just a basic set of tools and it's got to run most programs found on a Macbook.

I think this device will have to have the ability to have OS X installed, or it will just be an oversized iPhone. Another definite possibility is that they have invented an OS just for this device. Considering:1) apple will position this to compete with iBook readers2) apple will position this to be the coolest and most powerful option when considering purchasing a netbook (not to mention the most $$$).The iPhone OS does not fit these criteria. They will not use it on this device. They will however want to deliver apps in some way.There are 3 possible options for apple:1) iPhone OS butchered to work on a larger screen (an inelegant solution if you ask me), like a widget-style window for iPhone apps - yuck!, why don't I just use my iPhone/iPod for this? Kludge! and apple doesn't do kludge, they leave that to MS.2) OS X with new capabilities to run iPhone apps3) a completely new OS for this device.Which one do you think it will be? Other suggestions?

I've mentioned before I don't believe it will be iPhones OS on this device, it's not powerful enough nor does it have enough features on it for this type of device. It will be somewhere in between the iPhone OS and the full Mac OS, it will have to be. Okay it's not going to be powerful enough to run the full Mac OS but, to be a serious contender, it's going to need much more functionality out the door then the basic iPhone OS can do.

If all it's going to be is an oversized iPhone with the ability to read books in a larger format and give you more space for videos to resemble a full size DVD, (720x480), then yeah, and it won't do that well.

On the other hand if it's a "Netbook killer" then it will have to be able to do everything a netbook can do and then some, (it is coming from Apple isn't it?) Which will mean it will have to be able to at least run a customized version of Mac OS but, without using Flash or any of it's Apps that are resource hogging, such as Quicktime exporting but, playback will still be there. iTunes/iLife will be more like AppleTV's version than OS X's. A mobile version of iWork will be a necessity if it can't run the full version but, don't expect apps like Aperture to run.

It will also be necessary for it to be able to install and run a version of the developer tools to be a serious contender, even if it's just a basic set of tools on it, something that someone would use in a classroom setting with Apple's wireless keyboard and/or mouse, when not taking notes on it using a stylus of some sort to write on the screen in Pages or Keynote. Okay so compiling times will be a little longer on it, it basically won't need to be a full featured set of tools but, enough to create basic coding projects on it, at least to the point where it can be taken back to the dorm where it can be transferred over to their iMac for full completion of the projects in question, in a full version of Xcode. Being able to compile even the basic learning languages on it should be within reason, Java, C, C#, C++, Objective C, Python, and Ruby along with the ability to create HTML, CSS, PDF's, and XML on it too.